Meeting Natives with Lewis and Clark

When Captains Lewis and Clark began their Expedition of Discovery in 1803, they carried instructions from President Thomas Jefferson to learn about the American natives they met along the way. From St. Louis, up the Missouri River, over the Rocky Mountains, all the way to the Pacific Ocean and back again, the Corps of Discovery encountered Indian nations and tribes who were mostly unknown to them. There were new things to learn every day both for Jefferson's men of exploration and for the many different Indian peoples who had long ago settled in the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the Columbia River Basin. Discover: hunting and fishing, trading and gifts, creation stories and legends, councils and chiefs, tipis and earthlodges, food and festivities, spoken language and sign language, methods of travel.